It is known in the art to provide a reservoir of liquid material to supply an outlet of such material on demand.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,113,022 discloses a dispensing device which uses a rubber tube to discharge liquid from a container. In operation, a handle is depressed causing a roller to squeeze along the length of the tube ejecting material therein. After dispensing, the roller disengages and permits the tube to refill.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,975 discloses a dispensing device which is activated by inserting a member into the device. Upon removing the member, a product (particularly toothpaste for example) is dispensed upon the member (a toothbrush for example). The device has a roller which is mounted at a distal end of an arm. The other end of the arm is pivotally mounted to a slidable head. A parallelogram shaped guide causes the roller to compress a flexible tube between the roller and a housing when the roller moves in one direction and disengages the roller from the tube when the assembly moves in the opposite direction. Thus, inserting the member cocks the mechanism by moving the roller along one side of the parallelogram, while removing the member causes the roller to squeeze product out of the tube by passing along another side of the parallelogram.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,854 discloses a dispensing apparatus which has a rotatably mounted arm with a roller at a distal end. The arm rotates in response to a manually applied liner force. The rotation of the arm causes the roller to pass along a flexible tube to force product out of the tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,278 discloses a dispensing apparatus having a first container disposed around a second container. The second container is flexible and contains product. A source of fluid pressure such as a foot pump, for example, communicates with the space defined between the first and second container. When pressure is applied to the second container by pumping up the space between the two containers, product is dispensed from the second container.
These types of devices, however, prove cumbersome or unacceptable for dispensing surgical scrub solutions. When scrubbing prior to surgery, operating room personnel must limit their contact with nonsterile objects. Therefore, hand operation of a disepnser may cause contamination of hands which have already been substantially scrubbed. Foot pump or foot switch operated dispensers are cumbersome as the operating room personnel must locate the pedal under a sink with their foot and in the case of air pump operated dispensors, contaminated air may be introduced into the soap supply.